There were three percussionists
onstage, the band actually seemed to be enjoying themselves, and
someone from Mayor Willie Brown's office formally declared it
Smashing Pumpkins Day. ("It means you have to pay us all
your taxes and we have keys to all your houses," joked
frontman Billy Corgan.) The opening night of the Smashing
Pumpkins' 16-date American charity tour at San Francisco's Bill
Graham Civic Auditorium on Tuesday (June 30) was filled with
surprises. The band played their latest album, Adore, in its
entirety during the two-hour set, kicking off the night with an
energized version of the disc's opening track "To
Sheila." Dressed uniformly in black, the seven-piece touring
outfit slowly built up the subdued song into a hazy rock jam
accented by guitarist James Iha's screeching fretwork and the
sound of tribal drums. Following with the sinister "Behold!
The Night Mare," the band quickly set the tone for the rest
of the evening: propulsive rhythms, jazzy keyboards and
melodramatic reworkings of their most current material. Corgan
didn't even acknowledge the bewildered audience, apart from a few
"thank you"s, until midway through the set. "What
we're trying to do on this tour is play all our album
Adore," he said. He then apologized for having to use a
lyric sheet for "Annie-Dog," a quietly subdued
highlight from the disc that the Smashing Pumpkins had never
tried out live before. The singer giggled and mimed his way
through the song, finally easing the crowd after an hour of
headstrong rock jams. The band then turned on the charm
full-force with a subdued rewrite of "Perfect" and a
near acoustic rendering of their first familiar hit of the show,
"Tonight, Tonight." Corgan dedicated the latter tune to
the audience -- "for being supportive of us and appreciating
what we're trying to do," he said. It was a magical moment,
replete with rustic electric piano accents and manic cheers of
adoration. Later, an extended Grateful Dead- style percussion
workout led into the familiar chords of "Bullet with
Butterfly Wings." But when the song finally kicked in, the
band brilliantly rendered it tuneless amid waves of feedback
worthy of Sonic Youth and rhythmic heat worthy of Pancho Sanchez.
Corgan merely spit out the verses, turning a haggard MTV hit into
an exciting and fresh punk anthem. Things cooled off considerably
with "Shame," another spotless ballad from Adore. Then
Corgan announced, "One more song, we have limousines to
catch." This set off a chorus of boos, although it was
unclear whether it was because of his comment or because the show
was coming to an end. The band then played a sleepy version of
"For Martha," which left bassist D'Arcy Wretzky, in her
black glitter devil horns and mesh tank-top, alone onstage with
the percussionists as the song wound down. When they returned for
the encore, the Pumpkins brought up onstage with them the
aforementioned representative from the mayor's office (more boos)
and a small boy named Travis, who accepted a $170,590 check from
the band on behalf of the East Bay Agency for Children.
"Travis, don't spend it all in one place," D'Arcy
quipped. The band then dug into an energized version of
"1979" before falling back into goth supper club mode
on "Blank Page." Judging by the astonished expressions
on the faces of the fans filing out of the venue, the new
Smashing Pumpkins came across far better than anyone could have
predicted.